DIY wall clock

Using some of the left over planks from my backsplash, I made a clock.



I used a kit that I had found many months ago for $4 at the Sally Ann.



I know it’s a little wonky, I’m still working on my jig saw skills :)

My drive to pick up my chairs this morning was only 5 hours instead of the anticipated 6 hour round trip. It was well worth it as the chairs are in excellent condition.



Now I have to decide what I want to do with them. My instinct is to leave them the natural wood colour because I have so much painted furniture already. Make some new cushions for the seats and use the fabric as the pop of colour?  Yes, I think I like that idea. What would you do?

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Junkin finds – another amazing find

The weather couldn’t have been any better for this long weekend and I didn’t get anything done in my kitchen, but I did manage to do some junkin’.

This lamp was $15. It came with a bell shaped shade which I didn’t like much, so I changed it to this one, but it may change again :)

3 meters of this upholstery weight fabric for $7.99, it just may find a place on the next find I am about to share with you.

I don’t actually have these yet, I am leaving tomorrow morning at 6:30 to drive 3 hours to pick them up. I know I sound like a crazy woman, but wouldn’t you drive for 6 hours to get these for $25 each?!

Faux bamboo Chippendale arm chairs … here’s hoping that I don’t get an email overnight telling me they were sold to someone else, I think i will cry.

And my daughter picked some lilacs for me. Nothing says spring like lilacs.

I hope you had an amazing weekend too.

Weathered wood planked backsplash

The backsplash is done! A huge thank you to Debbie at Me and My DIY, who inspired me with her amazing planked wall and then she wrote an awesome tutorial on how to achieve the look!  You can find the tutorial here.



What I was trying to achieve was a transition between the white cupboards and the dark wood floor.

Following Debbie’s tutorial, I first stained the planks in American walnut.



I used a brush but found that I didn't have a lot of control of how heavy the stain was, so for the pickled white wash stain, I decided to use a lint free cloth. It was a whole lot easier to layer the wash over top. Then I used the brush to add another layer to make it look like the wood had naturally aged over many sunny days.



The planks are not perfect and I had to deal with uneven walls, so getting the first row straight was impossible. I used my brad nailer to put the planks up and didn't  bother to fill the nail holes in, but that just adds to it’s character, right? *smile*

Next I did two coats of Minwax Polyacrylic to protect the wood, especially since this is a kitchen and it’s bound to get messy.



Next to do is caulking between the counter and backsplash. I am in the home stretch with my kitchen reno with only some touch up painting to do.

This is a long weekend here in Canada and I’m a little busy, but I hope to get some work done for the final reveal. My sister is coming to stay with me for the weekend, maybe I can convince her to help me paint :)



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Kitchen Progress – sneak peek

This is the third time I’ve changed my mind about my backsplash!  Debbie at Me and My DIY did the most amazing planked backsplash in her son’s bathroom, that it totally inspired me!

So far this has taken me three hours, probably another couple of hours to finish getting the planks up, then it’s time to stain. I’m so excited!

Happy Mother’s Day

How amazingly lucky I am to be a Mum, to have a Mum and to know so many amazing Mums. Even if you are not a mother, it is still a day to celebrate, as we are all born of Mothers.

Yesterday I got to spend the day with an amazing mother, my best friend, Lorraine. We shuffled off to Buffalo to do some shopping. We had a blast and came home with some thrifty treasures. We did not intend to go to a thrift store, but we found one and came home with some great treasures.  I also had it out with my GPS whom decided to give up on me as we were leaving. Grrrr.

We hit up Hobby Lobby and Joanne’s, neither of which I had been to before. I was finally able to get my hands on some Rub N Buff. I bought the golf leaf and although it said it was only for porous surfaces, I decided to try it on this pot. It’s a little blotchy but I love it. It definitely kicked it up a notch. Now I’m looking around to see what else can use some gold leaf around here, nothing it safe :)

 

Target was our next destination where I picked up this Ikat like shower curtain to make some cushion covers.

At the thrift store I found a pair of white linen pants, some new Converse Chuck Taylors with pink trim and this groovy pair of Franco Sarto shoes.  I have a thing for patent leather and loafers, so these were a steal at $3.99. Love them!

(excuse the pasty white feet)

Happy Mother’s Day!

Junkin Finds

My daughter and I went out junkin yesterday to look for some summer clothes. She scored big time with some great brand name stuff. I told her she is lucky that we don’t wear the same size, or I’d be raiding her closet.

I also found some pretty neat stuff. For a dollar each, I found 8 of these fab place mats. I just love the pattern and the colours.  I used 4 of them to make cushions.

And 4 of them for a make shift table runner, that will be moved when I need to use them at a place setting.

Last week I showed you some of my favourite tea pots. I found another one!  A little darling bunny for 3 dollars!

Add colour to the entry

I came home from work today and as I walked up to my door I noticed how boring and blah it looked. After such a long and snowy winter, I am craving some colour.

I dug in my stash and found some bright spray paint and fabric and within an hour I added some needed colour. 

This is what I came home to, how depressing.

Much better

We don’t have much blooming yet in this part of the world, so I picked up some potted pansies that were marked down 50%, left overs from Easter. Speaking of this part of the world, I’ve added a “Meet Mel” page (at the top), maybe some of you would like to know a little more about me than just seeing a picture of my face :)

I hope to work on my kitchen this weekend if my chest infection will allow me to work without hacking up a lung or two. Have a great weekend.

Kitchen progress – the end is in sight

I have been side lined with pneumonia and wasn’t able to work on my kitchen for two weeks! It felt like an eternity because I had picked a paint colour (finally) and purchased all the new moulding, but my body had other plans for me. I’m still not good, but I am getting there.

Last night I had 3 hours of sleep in a row and felt positively rejuvenated :)  I got up bright and early and got to work.



I started by painting the ceiling and installing a new light fixture. The ceiling paint is a very light blue, barely noticeable.



Next, I cut the bamboo blind down to fit into the frame rather than outside the frame. I should have done this a long time ago, it’s made such a difference. Before it was too small for the window and I had it sort of centered, but it was weird. See what I mean?



After trying out a lot of different paint colours, I settled on French Silver by ICI paints. It is blue during the day and grey during the night, love it. I had some repairs to do to the walls, so it nearly took me all day just to get a coat of paint on.



I framed out the new pantry door and added a handle to match the cabinets.



This is the eat in area. My daughter pleaded with me not to remove the chalkboard wall and although I’m tired of it, she isn’t. I picked up some wrought iron and wicker chairs for $10 each. They work better in this space than my old chairs. 



I have a few teapots that I adore, so I decided to display them together.



The tiling is next and it’s going to look smashing! I hung a couple of pieces up on nails to see what it is going to look like.



It’s coming together.



Still to do. Install the tile. Paint all of the baseboards. Get a new panel made at the end of the dishwasher as the old one is now too small, after removing so many layers of flooring. Install the same flooring in the dining room.

Oh, and clean up this mess!!!!



I hope you are having a great weekend!

A fresh coat of paint and added moulding

It’s amazing what a fresh coat of paint and moulding can do! This is the eat in area of my kitchen.

I remembered to take a before picture, but not before I had taken the bamboo blinds down to wash them…gross!!!!!!

I added trim around the window and put a fresh coat of paint on everything. Wow, it’s so much brighter. Maybe that’s because I washed my windows.  Next up is the window above the sink.

Before (the sun wasn’t quite up yet)

After

I am experimenting with paint colours. I have some paint that I picked up at the recycle centre that I am going to mix together and see what I can come up with *fingers crossed*.

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The nerve! Someone stole my photo

Update: My photo has been removed, as requested. 

When I first started blogging I made a sign that someone else had made and posted on their blog. This person was quick to tell me that it was her intellectual property and that I had no right to copy it. I disagreed but I removed my version, that I made with my own two hands, and apologized. There is a fine line between stealing someones property and making a version of your own, but at the time I didn't know any better. Now there are even websites and blogs that show off knockoffs!  If the Etsy poster had of asked, I would have given her permission to use my photo any way she wanted to.

I know it happens all of the time, but someone has stolen my photo, of my work, and is selling the photo on Etsy!  Really?

I don’t know why anyone would want it, it’s not a particularly good photo, but they’ve taken my watermark off and added their own. Sheesh, she should have asked and I would have said yes, use it.

I’ve sent the offending party a message to remove it from their sale site, let’s see what happens.
Here is the photo they took, which clearly has my watermark on it.



Thank you to WolfSilverOak for letting me know.

Kitchen progress – when you don’t really know what you are doing

Here is where my kitchen stands today.

My walls are not straight and the Ikea Pragel counters cannot be scribed. I’m left with gaps that I have to find a solution for before I can tile. The wall behind the stove is an easy fix, thanks to clever thinking by my bff, I am going to put up 1/4” plywood the entire width and height, that eliminates that gap. The longer wall, where the gap is more gradual may involve removing the drywall, installing new drywall and shimming it to meet the counters. Not a pleasant task, but it may be the only way to go. 

I did pick out new tile though, and I love it.  A little bit of putting the cart before the horse, but like anyone that enjoys home decor, you are drawn to the pretty bits that make it sparkle.

 

I got the tile for a steal of a deal at $3.50 each.

I needed a new door for my pantry and only a bifold would work. A panelled door was not what I wanted, so I bought a plain Masonite door and added the same trim as I did on the cabinets.

not painted yet

This was the biggest door I could get that was not custom order (read, big bucks) so I had to add wood to the top of the frame

The frame is so out of whack that I had to add a shims on one side to bring it to level. The frame is also out of plumb, but trim moulding will hide the majority of the sins.

It will be painted the same white as the cabinets and a matching handle will be installed.

I am still way ahead of my August deadline, so having to take a couple of weeks off while my wrists felt better is a-ok.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Chalkboard art and a great GW find

My kitchen is at a standstill while I rest my wrists. I had no clue how painful carpal tunnel syndrome is until experiencing it for myself. Owww.

My daughter is grounded from her computer this week and apparently is a little bored, because she asked if she could draw something on the chalkboard wall in the kitchen.  Um, yeah!

I have a self imposed moratorium on junkin’ until my kitchen is done, but I had some time to kill after work before picking my daughter up from rugby practice, so I popped in to the Goodwill close to work. I was giddy when I found this, for $20!!!

I’m not sure what I will do with it yet. Some thoughts are just hang it up as is, or use it as a headboard which would fit a double bed perfectly. Or change the colour and hang it outside, screw in some hooks, hang some small buckets and put candles in them, hmmm, maybe I could do that inside too.  Anyway, the possibilities are endless. What would you do?

Thumbprint tree guestbook for a birthday

In between working on my kitchen, going to work and all the others tasks I juggle, I am working on planning my mum’s 75th birthday party next weekend.

I’ve long adored the thumbprint wedding guest books and decided to adapt it for a birthday. There is a free template online at One Fab Day that I used as inspiration.There are also instructions on how to modify the names/dates and print it out. Rather than printing it, I wanted it on a canvas. The organic shape lends itself well to those of us with no natural artistic talent :) I added  few ready-to-go thumbprints because some people just don’t feel comfortable leaving theirs.



We are expecting 60-75 people, so it will be a nice full tree once everyone signs. The canvas is 16”x20” and was $5, two green ink pads and a sharpie for a few bucks and this frugal craft was only about $10.  I used my cricut and black vinyl to cut out the lettering; there was no way I was going to free hand it with my shaky paws.

I am cutting the last piece of the counter tops today. There have been a few hiccups in the install on the sink side of the kitchen because the new counter tops are a lot thicker than the old ones. The drain pipes are lower now and the faucet downpipe just barely fits the thickness of the new counter, yikes. Of course I didn’t even consider this when I bought these counters. There’s always something :)

I hope you are having a great weekend.

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Kitchen progress – flooring is installed

Yipee!  I hope you aren’t all bored with my kitchen project just yet because it’s starting to come together. I have installed the flooring, the new cabinets and counter top on one side. The counters on the opposite side are a little more involved with having to cut out the sink opening, so I’m leaving that for another day next week.

The past week has been hellish because I had to remove not one, not two, but three more layers of flooring until I got down to the floorboards. In total I have removed five layers of flooring: porcelain tile, cement backer board, vinyl tile, linoleum and sub floor.

New sub floor was installed and then the Allure vinyl strip flooring in hickory. The process was time consuming and my knees are raw, but it wasn’t difficult. I used a utility knife to score the tile and it snapped easily. I had read from others that installed it how difficult it was to cut the pieces, but I found it easy and didn’t have to change my blade once.

There was about 10% waste that has to be factored in and I over quessed on how many boo boos I would make. I’m left with an entire box and 3/4 of left over. The test of time will determine if I will continue the flooring in to my dining room. I’ve heard that some people have an issue with the tiles lifting, I sure hope I did it right and that doesn’t happen to me.

I used my circular saw to cut through the Ikea Pragel countertops and didn’t have any issues at all. Now that I have the one side of counter tops in, I’m not so sure I want to go with the white subway tile.  The truth is that I’m not a fan of tiled backsplashes at all, but a kitchen looks unfinished without them. I’m not sure which direction I will go in just yet.

I can’t decide on a paint colour for the walls. I’m leaning towards a greige so that there is some continuity between the rooms. I want to be sure that there are no pink undertones and I don’t want it too grey either. Here are some colours I am considering.

BM (that’s Benjamin Moore, not bowel movement) Clay Beige

BM Natural Linen

Or maybe I will go with a blue grey. I’m not sure why I’m obsessing over this, I’m a long way off of actually painting. 

I hope you are having a great weekend.  Spring is almost here, yay!